Videotapes + Math Lessons = Education

The Monday shooting schedule called for several retakes in a video saga titled “Wilbur and Venus Change Desks,” but co-star Venus Miller was missing.

Her classmates said she had the measles.

“We’ll just have to shoot around her,” Vaughn Street Elementary School teacher Chuck Arballo told his second- and third-grade students. That’s the way it goes in show business, even with the pint-sized production and acting crew at Vaughn Street School, who make videotapes to teach mathematics to their peers.

Backed by a $7,000 state educational grant that purchased professional-level video equipment, Vaughn Street students are turning abstract math theories into concrete examples and taping the results for use in other classes.

Illustrates Concept

For instance, the “Wilbur and Venus” episode was a way to illustrate measurement. In the story, Wilbur Quintanilla, the shortest student in the class, and Miller, the tallest, were assigned to desks that were obviously too high or too low for them.

To find each student a better desk, classmates measured Quintanilla and Miller. After the measurements were recorded and compared, the story ended happily with Quintanilla and Miller sitting at desks better suited to their heights.

“First the teacher teaches the math concept,” said Vaughn Vice Principal Grant Halley. “Then the teacher asks the kids to come up with real-life situations to illustrate the concept. The kids write a story and they videotape it. Later, the faculty will write lessons around the tape so it can be incorporated in their classes.”

Vaughn Street is a year-round school in San Fernando. About 84% of the students are Latino and many come from homes where little or no English is spoken. For many of the students, making video programs provided their first exposure to cameras, videotape recorders and audio equipment.

Originally, the Vaughn video program focused on improving math skills. But writing the math episodes and learning to work the video equipment led to an unexpected benefit--expanding the vocabulary of students who have limited proficiency in English.

“Where else are these kids going to learn words like ‘cue card’ and ‘story board?’ ” Halley asked.

Future productions developed by Arballo’s students will focus on liquid measurements, telling time and making change.

Production should go smoothly.

If there isn’t an outbreak of measles.